A Big Salad That Stands In for Dinner

Video The addition of prosciutto, persimmon and croutons to a regular spinach salad makes light fare substantial enough for a full meal.

January 3, 2014

A Good Appetite

By MELISSA CLARK

I’ve never been very good with New Year’s resolutions, especially the ones along juice-cleansing, teetotaling, diet-and-exercise lines. All those high expectations inevitably set me up to fail.

Instead, I strive for something resembling dietary balance all year long. When I overindulge one day, I’ll salad it up the next. Which means, given all the meaty, buttery, whipped-cream-slathered meals I enjoyed in December, I’ll be eating a lot of salad for dinner in January.

That said, in my book moderation goes both ways. Even my leanest salads are only moderately abstemious. The goal may be to consume lots of vegetables and fruit, but that doesn’t preclude garnishes of the salty, meaty and cheesy variety. After all, the better my salads taste, the more likely I am to gobble them up (and lay off the leftover Christmas cookies for dessert).

The trickiest part about having a big salad for dinner is getting the proportions right. It needs to be substantial and satisfying, but not heavy. To anchor the salad bowl, you’ll need plenty of dark leafy greens: spinach, arugula, baby kale and the like, enough to make up the bulk of what you’re eating. That’s the healthful part. Everything else should be in small-enough quantities to seem like delightful gifts on your fork. In one bite, maybe you’ll find a tidbit of cured meat clinging to the salad greens. In another, perhaps a crouton. But not both.

In this recipe, I use spinach shot through with slices of persimmon. I prefer the squat fuyu persimmons that are sweet at any ripeness, from rock hard to dead soft. The ideal texture for this salad is somewhere in between. You want the persimmon firm enough to slice nicely without going mushy, but with some juiciness. Don’t bother peeling it; the skin is thin enough to eat.

For protein (and pleasure), I toss in some prosciutto, which is a nice salty contrast to the persimmon. Croutons, laced with grated Parmigiano-Reggiano that turns crisp in the oven, add substance and crunch. Use a crusty whole-wheat or sourdough bread here if possible. It will have more flavor than white bread.

And finally, dress the salad with enough oil and vinegar to make every bite a joy. After all, there’s no point in eating something that doesn’t taste good. That’s a good resolution to make, whether it’s a new year or not.